Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sweeps Indie Awards Season
The French RPG built on Unreal Engine 5 continues to collect accolades, showing what small teams can achieve with modern tools.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has become the indie darling of the 2025-2026 awards season, picking up game-of-the-year nominations alongside titles with ten times its budget. For a game made by a relatively small French studio, that’s no small feat.
A Visual Showcase
The first thing anyone notices about Expedition 33 is how it looks. Built on Unreal Engine 5, the game features environments and character models that rival AAA productions. The art direction leans into a painterly, almost surrealist aesthetic that sets it apart from the photorealism trend. Every frame feels like it could hang in a gallery.
But visuals alone don’t win awards. What makes Expedition 33 special is how its combat system reinvents turn-based RPG mechanics with real-time reaction elements, creating encounters that feel tactical without the tedium.
The Small Team Advantage
Sandfall Interactive, the studio behind Expedition 33, has fewer than 30 employees. Their success demonstrates a growing trend in game development: modern engines like Unreal Engine 5 are democratizing visual fidelity, letting small teams punch way above their weight class.
This is exactly the kind of story we love to cover in our Dev Corner: tools and techniques that level the playing field for indie studios.
Should You Play It?
If you enjoy RPGs with deep combat systems and a strong artistic vision, Expedition 33 is essential. It’s particularly recommended for fans of Persona and Final Fantasy who want something that feels fresh while respecting genre traditions.
The game has a Metacritic score in the high 80s and continues to receive content updates. Available on Steam for $39.99, with console versions on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
